Bankers who view the FDIC as their insurance cooperative protecting them rather than a corporation protecting depositors have proposed unwarranted $10 and $20 million FDIC deposit insurance limits. There is a better solution to their concern over big bank competitive advantages.

The Fed hasn't been truly independent for 50 years, but the idea that it is keeps animating discussions about the central bank. True Fed independence will only arise under conditions of extensive reform.

After 60 years as a Fed watcher with the last 30 as a Fed critic, some would say Fed basher, Ken Thomas has developed a Q&A screening tool that President Trump should use for vetting Federal Reserve governors and the Senate should use for confirming them.

Junk bonds made Michael Milken the most important and richest person on Wall Street. But they caused many large thrifts to fail. Had he listened to his professors and pursued his Ph.D. in 1970, his legacy might have been different.

As we enter one of the banking industry's most extreme cycles of deregulation, we should remember it doesn't always work, especially when supervisory police are reduced and consumer protection guardrails are removed, resulting in a high-speed lane for risk-taking banks and nonbanks.

Trump's bank regulatory team is advancing all types of wish-list reforms, some more radical than others. When, not if, the political winds change, banks should be ready for a sharp reversal, what could become a wave of "revenge regulations."

New regulations implementing the Community Reinvestment Act are likely to run into trouble unless they take into account the priorities of the Trump administration and its efforts to streamline the federal government.

Just as two North Carolina universities have dominated college basketball in recent decades, two banks from the Tar Heel state have dominated much of U.S. banking since 1990, turning Florida, especially, into a "banking colony."

President Trump and Elon Musk probably would not have put Rohit Chopra and his CFPB on their hit list had he run it with common sense, balancing the interests of both the financial industry and their consumers. An independent and consolidated federal consumer financial protection agency is needed, but only if a fair-minded leader runs it.

After nearly 10 years of banking my business, BofA debanked it because of overzealous anti-money-laundering enforcement. The Trump administration must bring back common sense to Bank Secrecy Act compliance.